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Garden Day 2017 – DHSCV Free Gardening Wellness Classes

Free Gardening Wellness Classes

Presented by DHSCV at the 12th Annual Desert Garden Community Day on October 28, 2017


Native Bee Pollinators, The Forgotten Treasure of Native Bees

9:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. by Melissa Bacall and Ruthe Meyer, UCCE Master Gardeners, Yucca Valley and Indio

Native bees and their vital role in pollination.

Monarch & Queen Butterflies, A Close Encounter with Desert Royalty

10:45 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. by Wallace & Maureen Austin, UCCE Master Gardeners, La Quinta

It’s Butterfly Season! Is your garden ready to host the desert’s winged royalty—Monarch and Queen butterflies? Set the stage! A few simple steps on your part will invite them to linger in your garden.

Most of us fondly remember chasing colorful butterflies as a child! But butterfly populations are drastically dwindling. The regal Monarch butterfly, heralded as one of the most beautiful of all garden butterflies, is reportedly at risk of extinction! Monarch populations have declined by more than 80 percent in recent decades. Find out the reasons why—and more importantly—the small actions you and your neighbors can take to help turn that trend around! Participants will receive free seeds to get them started in helping to preserve the local Monarch (and Queen) butterfly populations.

Uses of Desert Native Plants, Yesterday & Today

11:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Robin Kobaly, Exec. Director of The SummerTree Institute, Morongo Valley

Join Robin as she presents ancient and traditional uses of our native desert plants, demonstrating ways to adapt them to fit today’s needs for food, healing remedies, tools, art, and more, besides their value as eco-friendly yard landscape. Find out why these powerful native plants’ survival strategies make them so useful to us today. Learn how the unique qualities of each plant can add richness to the home, kitchen, medicine chest, garden, and more. You will leave with a new perspective on our amazing native plants and the valuable gifts they generously offer to us, both in our yards and inside our homes.

Usage of Native Desert Plants of Southern California

12:45 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Jasmin Gonzalez, former director Malki Museum, Morongo Reservation, Banning

Jasmin Gonzalez is a life long resident of southern California. She has had a passion for sustainable living since childhood. Jasmin is a graduate of California State University of San Bernardino with a degree in history and is currently pursuing her Masters in Teaching at the University of Redlands. As the Malki Museum’s director for the past three years she gained a vast amount of knowledge on the usage of desert plants for sustainability.